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Geneva auto show 2010 - some things you might have missed...

By now, you'll no doubt have read all about the cars and concepts that you were interested in at last week's Geneva auto show. But if you've still apetite to digest and cogitate, Drew Smith - of the Downsideupdesign blog - and myself are producing a two part podcast with pics to cover all of the major production debuts and concepts, which you'll be able to see/hear in the next few days. For now though, you might be interested in some of the details, elements and irreverant bits and bats that I noticed in the Palexpo last week. So without further ado...

IMG_4124

Citroen reimagined the ReVolt from Frankfurt as a racer for the road in the form of the SurVolt (above). Only Citroen could get away with painting it gloss blue, matte grey, pink and orange. But they did. Note these graphics - they were quite fun, a play on PCBs - used to signify the electric drivetrain.

IMG_4142

Meanwhile over at Mercedes (above), they'd got wood... (sorry, couldn't resist). The use of wood laminates in this interior was fantastic - it vied with the Pegueot (see below) for concept interior of the show, and previews an altogether more 'light of touch' future Mercedes interior design language...

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Peugeot marked its return to form with the SR1 (although special note to the glorious bike also on the stand) - which previews the brand's altogether more acceptable new face (thank god the rictus grin's gone). But it was the interior that really stood out in this car...great work Julien et al:

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Speaking of gorgeous things, here's a shot of the superb little Pininfarina Alfa Duettotanta that makes me go a little bit weak at the knees...

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March 09, 2010 in Analysis, Aston Matin, Audi, Auto, autoshows, Citroen, Design, Designers, Drew Smith, Geneva, Honda, Juke, Materials, Mercedes, Nissan, Observations, Peugeot, Photos, Podcasts, Porsche, Toyota, VW | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Riversimple: launching a new kind of car (part I - overview)

Riversimple car

Today, on the terrace behind London's Somerset House, Riversimple launched the culmination of nine years research and development - their new open source, hydrogen powered city car. Like Local-Motors in the US (more on whom soon), Riversimple are utilising open source principals to design and develop a new car. But that's only half the story. Riversimple have, in effect, today launched a blueprint for how the car industry could reinvent itself - with wholesale changes to the way vehicles are designed, how they're fueled, where and how they're built, and how they're sold.

We captured a heap of footage at this morning's launch event and we'll get much of it online over the next day or so. Like us, you might be sceptical about the potential of hydrogen fuel cells, or the application of open-source principals in a hardware, rather than software setting. In this first video, Hugo Spowers - CEO of Riversimple, explain some of the principals behind, and answer some of the pressing questions about the car and the company behind it. It makes for interesting watching...


Full photoset by Mark, from today's event (click on photos to go to the flickr page):

Riversimple photoset
Note: All of The Movement Design Bureau's published content - including our videos and photos you see, is creative commons 3.0 licensed. That means you can use it, republish it or mash it up on your own site - just include a link back to this page.

Posted by Joseph Simpson on 16th June 2009

June 16, 2009 in Auto, Design, Hydrogen, London, Open Source, Porsche, Riversimple, Sustainability, Technology, Video, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Knitting patterns: taking hybrid cars mainstream

Knitted jumper

Until recently, the typical hybrid buyer tended to be the sort of person you’d try to avoid sitting next to at dinner parties. Ok, perhaps that’s a bit mean, but one had to be fairly committed to the cause to go hybrid.

However, things are changing. A new Prius is here, which (whisper it) doesn’t drive like a mooing double bed on castors anymore. A couple of weeks back we reviewed Honda’s Insight, which can be had at a cheaper price than a hybrid’s ever been before. And then you can throw into the bargain the new Ford Fusion Hybrid - we’ve driven it, and it’s brilliant (unlike the Mercury Mariner Hybrid, which isn’t). Hybrid’s going mainstream.

Manufacturers are falling over themselves to ready hybrids – even once staunch opponents such as VW – because the technology is settling as one pattern by which America will go green. Europeans have long known diesel will deliver similar fuel economy benefits as a hybrid – but those on the other side of the pond still aren’t too sold on the idea. Before we embark on a Euro-bash of Americans and/or hybrids, there are fairly credible reasons for this. Diesel’s more expensive to buy in the US than in Europe – here, diesel’s been pushed (with tax breaks) – particularly by the French and Germans, so there’s now much more refinery capacity, for instance. And while diesel delivers better fuel economy (and hence lower CO2 emissions) than petrol, NOx and particulate matter from diesel exhausts are still problematic. They contribute to local respiratory diseases, and cost big money to reduce. Just ask Mercedes, BMW and VW who are adding expensive ‘ad-blue’ exhaust treatment systems to the cars they sell in North America, in order to pass the Tier II Bin 5 regs (don’t ask).

Touareg V10 TDI  In Europe, we've long believed diesel is the way to go - particularly when you need serious torque, in the world of SUVs and pick-ups.

What’s really significant is that Porsche and, yes, even Ferrari, will soon debut hybrids. Hybrid technology in performance-orientated cars is serious news. It’s easy to argue manufacturers who are about to get hit over the head (with heavy fines) by the EU over fleet emission have to go down this route, but that misses the point.

Firstly, it means that hybrid technologies can be seen to have benefits in a wide spectrum of automotive applications (not just ones primarily aimed at city-based, compact family vehicles bought by people who aren’t gear-heads). Secondly, it alludes to the notion that hybrid technology could actually enhance, rather than detract from the driving experience. The Prius and Insight are automotive cardboard. One doesn’t extract pleasure from piloting them down a challenging road. But if the technology is arriving in a Porsche and a Ferrari, then you can be sure that is about to change. ‘Fun’ and ‘hybrid’ will shortly be appearing in the same sentence, without being followed by guffaws.

This slow but steady greening of the automotive industry bears remarkable similarity to a previous automotive ‘trend’, which resulted in a complete attitudinal change in consumers back in the 1990s.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, only Volvos and Saabs were famed, and bought, for their safety. Of course, Mercedes had invented the airbag back in the 1970s - and it was appearing on top of the line S-classes in the late 1980s, but very little else. Then in 1993 Ford launched the European Mondeo – the first real mainstream affordable car with a driver’s airbag fitted as standard across the entire range. Except, in the UK, Vauxhall decided to beat Ford to it, literally by weeks, by doing the same in their updated Cavalier.

XC90 crash Once upon a time, only Volvo (above) and Saab were renowned for safety prowess.

By 1995, buying a new car that didn’t have a driver’s airbag was the exception rather than the norm. Then in 1997, Euro NCAP appeared. Suddenly, buyers knew which cars were ‘safe’ and which weren’t – and it was being thrust in their face. Safety became a selling point – which brands like Renault capitalised on. Come 2009, and it’s odd for any vehicle not to get 5 stars (the top crash rating) in a Euro NCAP test. Cars are much more crashworthy than the ones of twenty years ago. Consumers expect safety. They believe if they’re involved in a 40mph shunt, they’ll walk away. It took them a while, but it became the expected norm. Cars which flunked tests, suffered in the sales figures.

It sounds cynical, but I think that’s what you’ll see with hybrids, and green cars generally. Before long, it looks likely most new cars will include - at a basic level - something like stop-start technology. This is a big deal in itself, because emissions and wastage from idling cars in traffic is huge. But it’s looking like many vehicle will include some kind of hybridisation – regenerative braking, additional electric motors, a road-going version of F1’s KERS.

IMG_9987 One day, will all vehicles wear this badge?

So what you might say? There are three main reasons this is important:

  • It will cut emissions and raise fuel economy standards across the board.
  • It means the fun to drive, performance-orientated car is far from dead.
  • It conditions the market. Consumers, brought up for 100 years on a constantly running petrol or diesel motor, get used to the fact their car turns itself off at the lights, needs starting up in a different way, or doesn’t have a conventional gearbox. That’s good news – it leads us down a path of faster acceptance and uptake of new technology, and new forms of vehicles.

BMWefficientdynamics BMW's efficient dynamics campaign

The revolution is here now, and already being advertised. BMW calls it efficient dynamics. Audi’s just jumped on the bandwagon – and is calling it ‘recuperation’. Just as safety was the selling point of the 90s, judging by current adverts, hybrid, energy and green have now gone mainstream too. Before long, the consumer will expect – and likely demand - it.

Posted by Joseph Simpson on 10th June 2009

Images: knitted jumper - janetmck on flickr, Touareg V10 TDi - Asurroca on flickr, crash XC90 - hollesdottir on flickr, BMW banner - BMW

June 11, 2009 in Analysis, Auto, EVs, Ferrari, Ford, Honda, Hybrids, Insight, Porsche, Prius, SAAB, Sustainability, Technology, Volvo, VW | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Car crash

IMG_2075.JPG

Switzerland isn't a great place to feel poor so it seems unfortunate that the world's car bosses find themselves meeting in Geneva this week, at probably the auto industry's lowest point since the 1970s.

The mid seventies was a terrible time for the car industry, as the makers of our machines of movement walked dazed from the reverberations of the oil crisis of 1973 and the fuel prices and recession that changed both the type and quantities of vehicles buyers wanted.

Even by 1976 things were still hard - perhaps the only great machine of that year was the Porsche 928, from West Germany where car production in general was soaring on the back of a combination of product, quality, investment and general industriousness. In contrast the British industry was a mess. Austin Princess sales were peaking (if such a word is appropriate) and the manufacturing case study that is the Rover SD1 was being launched. Ford was slightly sharper - launching the Fiesta.

Design priorities change in times of big change. Currencies swing and oil prices bounce up and down. Financial services deals dry up through unstable valuations and poor access to capital, so established sales mechanisms fail.

New technologies change how and why we move, too. Perhaps not by coincidence the first personal computer (yes by that lot) was launched in 1976. Today, our lives are often half physical, half virtual. The Facebook generation has new ways to demonstrate its individuality without buying a Clio or a Focus or an MX-5. We interact differently and spend differently - and this is going to change more in future than it has already.

And then there's eco-awareness.

IMG_0689_2.jpg

Porsche 928. Camberwell, London, October 2008. Note the surrounding leaves aren't so much green as golden.

Living the good life

Through both that era and this there was a swelling of sustainability awareness. From 1975 to '78 Britain, for example, was riveted to The Good Life, a TV sitcom describing a suburban husband and wife going sustainable in the heart of commuter-belt outer London. They had no car and grew their own food. Of course, in the end they relied on the neighbour's Volvo estate at various points. And oh how we all laughed.

Back to 2009 and no-one could have predicted quite how deep and how quickly the economy would fall and the world's vehicle (and city) designers have been caught short too. Because mobilising resources to design, engineer and market products takes time and today's organisations can't do it as fast as the economy can now change.

For the car industry the big challenge is that it's structured as a car-sales industry. I joked a few months ago to Bob Casey at the Henry Ford Museum that if only man had started discovering other habitable planets, then Detroit would still be expanding. Otherwise the basic numbers don't stack up, 100-odd years on.

Right now, there are moves on several continents to introduce huge incentives to scrap current vehicles, so people have the need for a new one. This is a rotten tactic - I simply don't believe that for a modest motorist who is happy with their existing 8-year-old car, scrapping it to buy a new one is more environmentally sustainable than keeping it.

The reality is, large scale scrapping is the only economically sustainable strategy for the auto industry right now.

But is there an alternative? There is an opportunity - right now - for the industry's design talent, and indeed the vast amount of design talent beyond that is currently locked out of making a difference, to apply their skills. But they need to step beyond just influencing styling and product category decisions. They need to adapt the very essence of what cars mean to us.

I drive an Alfa Romeo but I don't want a new one right now. In fact, Alfa doesn't even know where I live. What I do want is to be able to drive an Alfa in any city I visit in Europe, from the airport. I want to order a taxi and have a Jaguar arrive. I'd like to try the new Fiesta and take my mates somewhere. In fact I'd like to try loads of new cars for which I'd pay, and be able to rent them from Cornish railway stations at the end of a 5 hour rail journey. I'd probably buy an Alfa Bicycle, too.

But I don't want to take out finance on a new car that is my one and only car. I'd rather get a MacBook Air and keep driving the car I've got. But I don't want the car industry to die. Is it up to me to throw away my old car, or can car companies find new ways to make my life fun?

The '70s ended with the 1980s. Hairspray, Porsches and Dynasty. Can we have plan B this time?*

Posted by Mark Charmer on 6 March 2009

*The Swiss, of course, have remained comfortably wealthy throughout.

March 06, 2009 in Auto, autoshows, Current Affairs, Design, Porsche, Sustainability, Volvo | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

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